Revamp Your Home With These Fantastic Home Improvement Tips

By Brendan Keaton


When your appliances fail or become outdated, you may be thinking that it's time to spruce up that kitchen with new cabinetry and some new countertops and flooring. There are many types of home improvement jobs people attempt to do for many reasons. Before you pull out that tape measure, though, take a few minutes to read these tips.

When doing a web search looking for a contractor to hire, do specific niche searches. Many contractors work in niche aspects of home improvement and can do an excellent job for you. These contractors have the experience and expertise that is required for many of the niche home improvement jobs.

By installing crown molding, you will be updating your home with a crisp and fresh look that is surprisingly high-impact. At just over a dollar per square foot, you can splurge on molding that complements your window trim, flooring and baseboards. This look is timeless and easily adds value to your home, even after many years.

How to paint a panel door. The order of painting a panel door is quite important if you want to get a professional look. First, paint any moldings, followed by the recessed panels. Next, paint the horizontal areas, and finally the vertical areas. Always use smooth strokes, following the grain of the wood. After the first coat has dried, rub the door with fine sandpaper, wipe clean, and apply a second coat.

You can speed the drying of your drywall patch by using a hair blower! Any hair dryer will work as long as it is portable enough that you can direct the air flow from it over your patch. Keep the air temperature set to low and don't try to dry the patch too quickly or it will crack.

Consider buying second hand treasures from local companies that recycle items pulled from houses either recently demolished or renovated. These items are often absolutely gorgeous and in excellent shape; usually the previous owners' tastes changed or the items no longer fit aesthetically. You may even choose to base your new designs around these recovered treasures!

Clean up the outside of your home. Sometimes all it takes to make your home look and feel better is a little TLC on the outside. Trim the shrubs and pull the weeds out of the flower bed. Add some decorative landscape lighting and make sure that all of the outside light fixtures are in proper working order.

Using a paste-form of wood filler to fill a hole in wood, that you need to screw into again, will not yield satisfactory results. The screw will cause the wood filler to disintegrate and never hold secure. Instead, break off pieces of wooden toothpicks and fill the hole with as many as it will hold. Put a drop of white or wood glue on top of the toothpicks, that you can break off so that they are flush with the surrounding wood, and allow to dry. When completely dry, replace the screw into your new real wood-filled hole and that will give the screw something to "bite" into, versus the plaster-like dust, created by typical wood fillers.

Recycle the molding in the closets of your old house to finish out your renovation project! Sometimes, finding molding to match the molding from old houses can be almost impossible. One option is to remove the molding that is, likely inside your closets. You'll never notice that it's gone and it will be restored to its glory, out in the open where it can be seen.

Room dividers are useful for defining living areas in homes with open floor plans. Purchased shelving units or folding screens always work well. However, simpler screens can also be made easily; hang fabric panels on dowels attached to the ceiling. Dividers allow privacy and visually break up large spaces into areas with specific purpose, such as computer nooks or exercise areas.

Don't throw out paintbrushes and rollers each time you use them! They can be cleaned and reused as long as you take care of them. Paint pans can be cleaned by letting them dry and then peeling off the paint. Don't waste your money on pan liners as cleaning the pan itself is simple.

A good way to get things done in your house is to ask for help from friends and family. You might want to ask close friends and family members to help you repaint your kitchen. You can pay them off by buying them lunch or taking them out to dinner, it's probably cheaper than hiring someone to do the job for you.

If you put new cabinets in your home, your kitchen will glow with beauty and style. New cabinets show all of your family and friends that your kitchen is a professional place for cooking and entertainment. You can find cabinets in light wood stains and dark wood stains, giving you the ability to personalize your kitchen to your specific tastes.

One important aspect of doing home improvement projects is measuring. Three must-have, measuring tools for projects are measuring tape, a ruler and a level. The measuring tape allows you to get dimensions of space and of the parts you may use. A ruler allows you to measure and create straight lines. A level allows you to make sure a surface is flat and not inclining or declining.

Make visible changes. Invisible changes are great for your home, but if it ever comes time to sell, you do not want to have to explain why you installed fantastic heating systems but did not fix your shutters. Keep in mind that visibility sells. You want to be at the top of the market.

Replace your garage door for a quick home picker-upper. The garage door is a focal point to many homes since it can be seen from the street, and is often also an eyesore. For around five hundred dollars, you can have a new garage door installed, and your home will have a fresh looking exterior.

Give a quick update to your kitchen by wiping down the cabinets and either adding or changing the cabinet hardware. Giving your kitchen cabinets a new set of knobs or handles can really enhance the look of your kitchen without costing a lot of money. With so many styles of knobs and handles available, you can change the character of your kitchen quickly and easily.

Even the simplest home improvement projects can seem overwhelming at first if you don't have a good grasp of the basics. Once you know what you're doing, though, any project is manageable. Just apply what you've learned from this article, and before you know it, you'll be one step closer to turning your house into your dream home.




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